Various types of devices have been designed for studying the effects of substances on biological components. Usually, the devices are multi-well plates that are used to test one or more substances only on the cells of a single well. In order for a biological pathway to be tested in response to a substance, the contents of a well previously exposed to the substance may have to be manually withdrawn and placed into a new well. As such, the current technology does not provide a suitable device or method for studying the cascading effects of a substance on biological components in a biological pathway.
With regard to toxicity tests, a significant amount of time and money may be expended in order to carry out environmental toxicity tests on chemical substances or toxicity tests on new drug candidate substances. A number of lengthy toxicity testing procedures on a variety of cell species and organism species are conducted. Various biological components (e.g., proteins, cells, and microorganisms) are likely to be involved in the practical mechanisms of environmental toxicity or toxic damage and detoxification metabolism of living organisms. However, current “one substance on one cell type” tests that examine toxic effects of a substance on specific cells are not sufficient or conducive to assaying or understanding the complex biological cascade of events involving a significant amount of biological components.
In view of the foregoing, it would be beneficial to have an improved biological assay device and system that is sufficient to perform comprehensive assessments of the biological activity of substances.